This undated image taken from video released by Qatar's Al-Jazeera television shows Osama bin Laden. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Al-Jazeera via APTN)

(Newser)
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The Office of the Director of National Intelligence yesterday released an "unprecedented number" of documents recovered in the raid on Osama bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan (among them: an al-Qaeda application and a warning about Iranian dentists). The ODNI also released a list of the 39 English-language books (though one is described as a "single saved webpage" and another as "only the book's introduction) found there. The New York Times frames the bookshelf as a "weird hodgepodge." The Guardian points out that the collection "bizarrely" includes a number of books by conspiracy theorists; one alleges George W. Bush had foreknowledge of 9/11. The full list is here, with 15 standouts below:

These books are what a average person might read if the world decided to make him the fall guy. There is nothing to suggest he had the mental ability to pull off 911 or any major attacks and except for 911 the Al-Qaeda attacks were not effective on US interests. Real coordinated attacks were totally absent. So if he is dead it is because he was supposed to be dead. It doesn't take "bizarre" conspiracy theories to figure out 911 wasn't planned by Osama bin Laden.

JoeQ

May 21, 2015 12:57 PM CDT

The full list is fascinating. You can get a sense of what was on the guy's mind. He was an administrator. Very paranoid of course. Very political and conspiratorial. Not very technical. No fiction or reading for entertainment. Looks like he might have wanted to get his hands on nuke material, either from Iran or France.

Crazy Horse

May 21, 2015 12:47 PM CDT

It wasn't mentioned in the story, but next to the toilet they found some back issues of Play-Martyr magazine and dog-eared copy Howard Stern's Private Parts. ...baba booey!